Balancing the scales
by AGENT Kuma-chan
Summary: Collection. It's a balancing act, saving your soul and saving others. A little tip and one side falls. Sometimes a little help is needed. 3. EdWin. If nothing else, Winry can trust Ed as they journey through the rabbit hole.
1. Winry Waiting

Community: 31days

**Community:** 31days

**Date/Theme:** Sept 14/me, myself, I, and the room left for you

**Fandom:** Full Metal Alchemist

**Pairing:** Slight EdWin

**A/N:** This is based on what I heard about the anime ending. So, Ed and Al have gone to our world and Winry is still in their world.

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"_They are gone, Winry," Sheska whispers, as though she is afraid that those words will break the other girl. She quickly looks up to confirm, yes, the other girl is still standing there and has not shattered into fragile fragments._

"…" _The blonde girl stares stubbornly at the ground, as though the answers she is seeking for lie there, written somewhere on the immortal stones. _

"_They are gone," Sheska repeats, her voice louder and more confident, trying to invoke a response from the blank girl. _

"_I know," Winry finally replies, clouds covering her vibrant eyes, "I know." She says nothing more, the gold of her hair covering her face, hiding it from the world for a moment._

_Sheska wonders if Winry is silently mourning right now._

"_So what now?" she asks carefully._

"_We'll see," is the cryptic response. The real is answer is "__**You'll **__see," because Winry already knows what she's going to do._

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_And so I wait_

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In a yellow house on top of a green hill, a fairy girl waits for two lost shadows. In wonderland, she ages but still believes that those that are lost can always be found. Being alone is just temporary, she believes, for this is neverland and the time lost can always be regained.

-x-

Her house feels empty without her heart and soul. There isn't a (blood-dyed) crimson cloak or a cold, steely glint of a fakefakefake arm in the kitchen. The hollow, empty suit is just that, no bodiless voice animating it.

She probably won't see either of those brothers again for a long time, a very long time if ever, and there will be no more arguments over milk or height jokes.

(No more glances at broad shoulders and a _maybeIloveyou_ in her dancing fingers)

She should be more depressed than she is feeling right now. Winry should be falling down the dark hole of despair and fighting off the waves of sorrow. She should be feeling beaten and trodden on, life being too strong and harsh for her.

Instead, she finds herself humming to her favourite song as she cleans the house. Her mop brightens the wooden floor and using a duster, she cuts away the dust. She removes the moth-eaten blankets on the bed and throws away unusable items. It is some time before she brings herself to stop.

The first guest bedroom is cleaned.

It's a small victory as she sets herself up to attack the second guest bedroom.

-x-

"_Winry?"_

"_Yes?"_

"_It's unhealthy, you know. Getting locked up in the house all day."_

"_Sheska, stop worrying so much. I was cleaning last week, cleaning all of the rooms and dishes. I'm done now and tomorrow I'll start repairing more automail."_

"_Winry…are you sure you're not pushing yourself? I mean, even though—"_

"_I'm ok, honestly. I'm not depressed or going crazy, if that is what you are worried about."_

"…_but…are you sure you can do this now? Isn't it a bit quick for you to get back to work? Are you sure you don't need to mourn more?"_

"…_no. I really don't need to. There's no point."_

"_What?"_

"_Sheska, you'll see. I'm already preparing for it, but you'll see eventually. Now, I'm in a rush to go and tell my boss I'm coming tomorrow!"_

-x-

Things that are normally done for one person are done for three.

Whenever she eats, she cooks just enough for her and a little more, just in case. On the table, there are three plates, three glasses, and three chairs. One for her, Ed, and Al.

The guest bedrooms are cleaned whenever she cleans her room, with fresh flowers in the spring and the clothes getting washed so they don't get ruined.

Even though she rarely has the time to do so any more, she still keeps the designs she made for Ed's arm and leg and improves them. Makes them lighter, stronger, faster. Adds little devices and objects, changes the material, and just makes it better than before.

They might be gone, but she doesn't allow herself to act like they are because there is something that Winry knows.

It isn't that Ed and Al will return—that is a given. When they show up at her door, apologizing for being late, she's going to beat them until they can barely look at yellow without cringing.

What she does know is that she has to wait for them to come back. She has to be patient and keep the door open, so when they _did_ come back, they could relax and know that some things didn't change.

This is the reason that Winry sets the table for three, keeps fixing their rooms, and wastes the night away adjusting parts for a boy that isn't around.

As long as she keeps a space open for them, a corner in the world that is _theirs'_, there will always be a place for them to call home.

-x-

Winry waits patiently for the two brothers because that is what she does best.

She can always be counted on to wait for them whenever they are lost, guiding them back to the path.

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**A/N:** I loved the idea behind this, but…did I execute it poorly or is that just me? This is going to be a one-shot collection, updated whenever I get ideas. Give me prompts and a character/pairing if you wish.

Questions?_Comments?_**Suggestions?**

_**Review!**_


	2. Homculi, Humanity

Community: 31 days

**Community****: ** 31 days  
**Fandom:** Full Metal Alchemist  
**Theme:** September 9: the linguistics of emotion  
**Characters:** Homucli

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_Humanity_

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They were creations, made from the souls of others and their bodies were made of dust and metal. Nothing was fully their own—their life came from someone else, their energy from a rock containing the blood of hundreds, their entities from the ground they sprang up from. When they died, they could be replaced easily and their bodies would return back into the earth, as though they weren't here in the first place.

(_As though they were ghosts, as though they were invisible, as though they were_—)

There was nothing to prove they'd ever walked on the earth, as they were kept in secret, hidden from the world they lived in.

(And that was a mockery. _Lived_? They didn't live, they didn't die, they were just _there_.)

Their names were not carefully chosen for being just 'Envy' or 'Lust' was enough because they'd end up pretending they were someone else. They never remained themselves except in secret and even then they were only like that for a few precious moments. Instead, they usually ended up taking someone else's name, someone elses' appearance—

_Always someone else, never themselves_.

'Envy' was a general, a cat, a painter. 'Lust' turned into a cause for destruction. 'Gluttony' was a bomb that didn't realize his true nature. 'Greed' had been changed again and again, for the _n_th time.

They envied humans for their emotions, for their personalities, for being _unique _because they weren't. They were pale imitations instead and no one wanted to be a fake.

Envy turned to hate, hate into destruction, and thus their goals began.

(If the originals disappeared, then they wouldn't be copies anymore.)

What they failed to realize was that they had emotions, something that was purely their own. They grew tired or bored, they wanted to sleep or hide, and it was all their own feelings. Something that wasn't borrowed or stolen, something that came from themselves.

And in the end, it was those emotions that would bring their downfall.

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**A/N**: Is this ok? I don't like it too much except for the idea…

Review!


	3. EdWin, Belief

**Title:** Belief

**Fandom:** Full Metal Alchemist

**Theme:** 28. I didn't doubt you for a second

**Character:** Winry, Ed

**A/N:** Sorry that it's short.

**Excerpt**: _She can trust him, at the very least._

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When it comes down to it, Winry can only believe in a few things. She realizes this as she plunges deeper and deeper into a world that isn't her own, a world where the very shadows can follow and there is nothing hidden.

Here, the word monster takes on a new meaning. It is no longer a scary being under the bed or a knife-wielding maniac ready to chop her up. Instead, it is a tension that fills the room and chokes her chest. Every step has to be done carefully and one false move can drop her into the jaws of a beast.

(And this beast looks normal, like someone she could be friends with. Someone she _is_ friends with. )

Anyone can be the creature waiting to grab her in the bright sunlight and there is no time that is safe.

Winry tries to be calm, to work like usual, but it is hard. She's playing a game she doesn't know the rules to and one day she might land on the wrong square.

With all this doubt, with all this worry that shakes her fingers, Winry can only believe in a few things. She can believe in her family and friends, believe that they are who they say they are and that they will survive.

She also trusts Ed. He always keeps his promises and when he tells her he'll be back, she knows that's a fact. He'll come back, a grin on his face and a look of worry when his automail breaks.

(Or maybe, she dares to hope, his automail completely gone. Either way, she'll hit him with her wrench before hugging him.)

Winry is able to smile during the day, confidently keep working, because of this trust. Even if the tension is still there, she has someone who will get rid of that creature. One day, she'll be able to breathe and smell her sweat and oil instead of blood and death.

Ed is sometimes the only reason she can keep moving one day at a time.

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